$5 Yankees Game Draws Unexpected Prayer Crowd
Yankee Stadium’s minyan on May 3, 2017 Image by Courtesy Samuel Weiss
The New York Yankees played the Toronto Blue Jays the evening of May 3 in Yankee Stadium, and because of a special promotion with Mastercard, some tickets were available for only $5. According to one Orthodox attendee, Samuel Weiss, these low prices have brought some unexpected traffic to the unofficial “Jewish Quarter” of the stadium:
“Not to promote stereotypes, but it’s a 5 dollar game at Yankee Stadium and the upper deck maariv minyan has 100 people at it…” Weiss posted on Facebook. Maariv is the Jewish evening prayer — many observant men recite the prayer daily in the presence of a minyan, a quorum of 10 or more Jewish men. It seems their prayers weren’t in vain, either: the Yankees beat the Blue Jays 8-6.
According to the prayer quorum-finding site goMinyan, this group regularly meets during the 7th inning stretch next to the kosher hot dog stand. Here’s a video of a typical crowd.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
